Restless Gold: Musings About California Pupils and Other Verses

By David William Salvaggio

Her stare of anger,

Sharp tongue

Pierced me

Like a dagger.

Consumed with ire

Until our unit on

A Streetcar Named Desire.

No matter what period in history, teachers must navigate a host of challenges both inside and outside the classroom in order to effectively prepare their students for the future through the process of learning critical thinking skills.

In a collection of eighty-five poems penned from 1980 to 2020, David William Salvaggio shares lyrical insight into four decades filled with significant social change, wars, political upheaval, two pandemics, discrimination, and civil unrest as he taught a diverse group of high school students who were wealthy, poor, famous, infamous, abused, successful, and categorized as Dreamers. With both humor and heartache, these timely works reflect the struggles, failures, and victories of Salvaggio as he witnessed failures, heartache, and the power of love and hope to overcome all darkness.

Restless Gold; Musings about California Pupils and Other Verses is a volume of poetry inspired by 35 years of teaching high school students.

“Powerful ...”

— Jessica Yowell, Editor, Elyssar Press

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Apr 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665704854

David William Salvaggio

David William Salvaggio taught high school English and American literature, drama, and history for thirty-five years. He is a freelance writer who has published editorials and feature articles in various journals including the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Examiner, and San Jose Mercury News. In 1999, his tragicomedy, From Shirley Temple to Aimee Semple, ran for nine weeks in West Hollywood. Salvaggio resides in Redlands, California.

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Copyright © 2021 David William Salvaggio.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Archway Publishing

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.archwaypublishing.com

844-669-3957

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-0484-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-0483-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-0485-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021906165

Archway Publishing rev. date: 04/08/2021

CONTENTS

My Voice

PK Orange

Golden Grove

First Day

The Zoo

Silenced

Scorned

Black Hand

Goliath

Fuckin

Faggot

Tall TA

Falsely Accused

Lovers

Freshman Boy

Twins

The Artist

Rewarded

Desert Born

Campus Couple

Skinhead

Gangbanger

The Black Cat

Dazed

Christopher

Condom and Cash

The Girl with Long Light Brown Hair

Tracy

Highway One

Sounds of Lucia

That Certain Summer

September 11, 2001

Hot Sauce

The Encounter

Adrienne

Stage Star

My Lesson Learned

Our Angel

Unwelcomed Caller

Choices

Vanished

Published Pupils

Expressions

Meetings

Tough Girl

When Pupils Weep

Richard

2000

Purple Hair

Colorful Wads

Home Invasion

Mary

Hungry

Transformed

Suicidal

Homeless

Heroes

Strategies

Barack O-Who?

Yes We Can

Foreign Exchange

The Dreamer

Abused

Faded Ones

First Email from the East

Sharon

Lorin

Brent and Tonya

Anthony

Sierra

Angela and Dasan

Ra Ja

Ashley

Pam and John

Student Nurse

Only Sixteen

Peter

Obese Girl

Perfect TA

Daven

Reyes

The Apology

November 9, 2016

The Redlands Bowl

My Sanctuary

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"Everyone possesses

an element of profundity."

–LORRAINE HANSBERRY

This book is dedicated to the thousands of my former

pupils who, over the course of thirty-five years,

inspired me to write about them as well as myself.

Special acknowledgements to Mike and Jan Millspaugh. In the